Miami of Ohio Student’s Dog Returns After Being Gone for 10 Years

A 22-year-old Miami (Ohio) University student last saw her family’s black lab mix named Abby when she was 10-years-old and playing with the dog in her backyard.

Then Abby was gone.

The student’s mother, Debra Suierveld, assumed that the dog had died. Then, last week, they got a phone call from Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley, Pa. Workers there had been alerted to the presence of a black lab who turned up on a porch in the area. When they noticed the animal had a microchip, they knew they had a great chance of finding her owners.

And that was the Suiervelds.

“We thought she had passed away,” Debra told the Associated Press. “It feels like a part of my kids’ childhood is back, part of our family is back. It’s pretty awesome.”

She immediately called her daughter at school, who broke out in tears.

Wherever Abby had been, the dog was in good health and seemed to remember her home and family — which now includes two other dogs.

“She would lie on the floor and cross her paws, and she remembers my daughter’s commands, and she remembers the commands I taught her,” Debra told CBS Pittsburgh.

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